GreyWhirly Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 Hi there, My first post! I am looking for a bit of advice/help with regards to providing our SLT/governors with a way of holding gov meetings by video. The CoG is keen to use Zoom ... but I have read lots of reasons as to why this not be the best tool to use, so am looking to see if there is a way to allow them to participate in video conference meetings using MS Teams, or similar. There would be up to 10 of them 'attending'. We have just recently setup MS Teams and at the moment, only our SLT/Admin staff are using it. I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to come up to speed with it all! I have created a couple of different Teams (as have also been reading about teams vs channels) and will assign the relevant users to their teams. Our governors do not have O365 accounts, as they use their personal email addresses (but login to a secure site to access governor documents). Is Teams an option for video meetings for them (as the meetings will be scheduled by members of our SLT who are in Teams) I have read that external people can be invited into a Team call. Or is there something else they could use? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!
Roberto Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) Teams sounds like a good option as you already support it internally, and you can share documents securely. You can connect externally as a guest to a teams meeting iirc, and you can implement any controls, ensure data management, etc. I’m using zoom to support my church’s online meetings/services and it’s been fine, but their privacy and security is complete and utter chaos and, well, clown shoes only in their boardroom I think... no way I’d trust it for anything you’re doing. Edited April 4, 2020 by Roberto 1
Ditto Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 As you are down the road with Teams, it's the best way forward.
GreyWhirly Posted April 4, 2020 Author Posted April 4, 2020 OK thanks @Ditto and @Roberto - I will have a try out next week with some colleagues who are working from home and will use their personal email addresses to invite them. I wouldn't say I was "down the road" with Teams ... more like running down a slope with no brakes! It's been an interesting couple of weeks to say the least! We had intended on evaluating O365 vs Google Edu to see which one suited us best ... but once the pandemic hit, as all staff already have an O365 account, it seemed easier just to go down that route and get Teams setup. I am mindful however of doing things now that might have implications later on ... so am trying to set things up in such a way as they will be sustainable later. I was hoping (in the future) to migrate all the teacher planning docs and resources that are currently held on network shares to a cloud solution ... so now that we have started down the O365 route I guess my next thing would be to look at how I can use Sharepoint to achieve this ... as I think I read that SP is better for this than OneDrive ...? We do also have a Google Edu account setup - but I am wary of having a foot in both camps ... although I love being able to control the use of YouTube clips via GfE! I think our staff prefer the MS look and feel of OneDrive/Sharepoint - and also editing docs in real Word, etc. I'm still a bit torn between GfE and O365 ... I like bits of both of them!
Ditto Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 My personal preference in schools is GfE. I like the enthusiastic dynamism of those are involved with it in the education arena. I also just found it easier to work with. However, working with governors, they are more likely to be familiar with MS stack than GSuite, hence would stick with Teams for them.
GreyWhirly Posted April 4, 2020 Author Posted April 4, 2020 My personal preference in schools is GfE. I like the enthusiastic dynamism of those are involved with it in the education arena. I also just found it easier to work with. However, working with governors, they are more likely to be familiar with MS stack than GSuite, hence would stick with Teams for them. Yes, I agree about GfE ... do you use the native Google editors for documents etc, or still with MS Word, Excel etc? I think I would have a hard time trying to tear the staff away from their beloved (!) MS offerings!
mavhc Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 Teams currently has better Slack cloning Google has better document collaboration and less confusion https://meet.jit.si/ host your own video chats, no need for 3rd parties 2
Ditto Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 Yes, I agree about GfE ... do you use the native Google editors for documents etc, or still with MS Word, Excel etc? I think I would have a hard time trying to tear the staff away from their beloved (!) MS offerings! Sadly, I'm in an Office 365 only environment now. When I was GSuite admin, it was a new free school and was GSuite only and backed by governing body and SLT, so not too much of a challenge as recruited staff were not given a choice. There were a few grumbles, but the vast majoriy of staff adapted - the cost saving to the school was significant. Two issues really. Primary teachers stuck with a dependency on Twinkl and TES resources, so lots of MS documents. Most we could adapt. Word and Powerpoint with graphics were generally the biggest challenge. There were a few admin staff on MS, but only if really needed. It takes SLT buy-in to abandon MS completely. We had a new senior school head who just refused to accept using Gmail. He resisted all attempts to align to the school strategy of GSuite, set up his own Gmail to outlook sync and destroyed his inbox and trashed control of his communications. He was out of depth, led to mine and the exams officers resignation and barely survived a year. So, it is doable, but only with a SLT backing. To be honest, Excel to sheets was a doddle, Word to Google docs fine unless really complex. Powerpoint to slides was probably the least well supported migration. But, Google will have improved things. Also, conversion to PDF for many documents bypassed the challenge. Ultimately, I think the ideal situation is to have both, but try to stick to one the majority of the time. 1
Roberto Posted April 4, 2020 Posted April 4, 2020 I was hoping (in the future) to migrate all the teacher planning docs and resources that are currently held on network shares to a cloud solution ... so now that we have started down the O365 route I guess my next thing would be to look at how I can use Sharepoint to achieve this ... as I think I read that SP is better for this than OneDrive ...? They’re the same thing really. Sharepoint online is a service that can host all kinds of resources, docs, media, etc in lots of sub-sites however you want (and this is the right place for shared resources). One of the types of site hosted in sharepoint is a personal space for each user to use as a cloud drive (and from where they can share content). This particular feature of sharepoint is known as a Onedrive... Hope that explains a little of what’s happening there!
mavhc Posted April 5, 2020 Posted April 5, 2020 Sadly, I'm in an Office 365 only environment now. When I was GSuite admin, it was a new free school and was GSuite only and backed by governing body and SLT, so not too much of a challenge as recruited staff were not given a choice. There were a few grumbles, but the vast majoriy of staff adapted - the cost saving to the school was significant. Two issues really. Primary teachers stuck with a dependency on Twinkl and TES resources, so lots of MS documents. Most we could adapt. Word and Powerpoint with graphics were generally the biggest challenge. There were a few admin staff on MS, but only if really needed. It takes SLT buy-in to abandon MS completely. We had a new senior school head who just refused to accept using Gmail. He resisted all attempts to align to the school strategy of GSuite, set up his own Gmail to outlook sync and destroyed his inbox and trashed control of his communications. He was out of depth, led to mine and the exams officers resignation and barely survived a year. So, it is doable, but only with a SLT backing. To be honest, Excel to sheets was a doddle, Word to Google docs fine unless really complex. Powerpoint to slides was probably the least well supported migration. But, Google will have improved things. Also, conversion to PDF for many documents bypassed the challenge. Ultimately, I think the ideal situation is to have both, but try to stick to one the majority of the time. And still there's no company selling gsuite native resources, afaics. Where's the CS lesson resources in google classroom form?
GreyWhirly Posted April 5, 2020 Author Posted April 5, 2020 They’re the same thing really. Sharepoint online is a service that can host all kinds of resources, docs, media, etc in lots of sub-sites however you want (and this is the right place for shared resources). One of the types of site hosted in sharepoint is a personal space for each user to use as a cloud drive (and from where they can share content). This particular feature of sharepoint is known as a Onedrive... Hope that explains a little of what’s happening there! Thanks Roberto, I knew they must be related! Up until now, we have only used OneDrive for sharing certain documents between individual teachers and the Head (i.e each teacher needs to have access to a set of documents in a folder, but the head needs access to all the teacher folders) - which has worked for us in the past. Going forward I just need to design a structure in SharePoint which replicates the current way our network shares are configured ... but I also really like the things I can do with Google Edu ... so I think I might experiment with the doc/resource sharing possibilities that it offers. My only reservation is that a lot of the documents we use are based on Word templates and have odd layouts ... so am not sure how Google docs editors will handle them ...
GreyWhirly Posted April 5, 2020 Author Posted April 5, 2020 Teams currently has better Slack cloning Google has better document collaboration and less confusion https://meet.jit.si/ host your own video chats, no need for 3rd parties Thanks @mavhc, I will look at the video chat option you mentioned! I am not sure I know what Slack cloning is though!
elsiegee40 Posted April 5, 2020 Posted April 5, 2020 We are using Webex which the MAT already had in use for teaching staff 1
mavhc Posted April 5, 2020 Posted April 5, 2020 Thanks @mavhc, I will look at the video chat option you mentioned! I am not sure I know what Slack cloning is though! Well in 2013 Slack was published, and became very popular, compared to traditional online chat, so Google Chat (rather than Hangouts) and Teams are basically clones of it, Discord ended up a clone too, although that's more voice based, very popular as its free version is better. 1
Ditto Posted April 5, 2020 Posted April 5, 2020 Well in 2013 Slack was published, and became very popular, compared to traditional online chat, so Google Chat (rather than Hangouts) and Teams are basically clones of it, Discord ended up a clone too, although that's more voice based, very popular as its free version is better. Plagiarism of a sort - a high form of compliment.
paulkerton Posted April 6, 2020 Posted April 6, 2020 Go with whatever your school platform already is, in this case MS Teams. I'm just thankful I've got a headteacher that when this very question came up, insisted on going with the platform the school already has in place, rather than rushing to bring in Zoom. Let's not forget what a terrible security track record Zoom has! Does no one remember them installing web servers on Mac for anyone who had their client installed last year? They could remotely trigger reinstallation! Or currently, that the naming protocol for any recordings of the meetings and dumping them into open public AWS buckets, means that most of these recordings are surfaceable just by a web search? 1
synaesthesia Posted April 6, 2020 Posted April 6, 2020 Well Zoom is now being actively blocked by countless schools across the states and no doubt other countries. Enough said I think. 1
altecsole Posted April 6, 2020 Posted April 6, 2020 https://meet.jit.si/ host your own video chats, no need for 3rd parties This is great! Dead easy to use for Governors - many thanks.
Ditto Posted April 6, 2020 Posted April 6, 2020 Go with whatever your school platform already is, in this case MS Teams.Or currently, that the naming protocol for any recordings of the meetings and dumping them into open public AWS buckets, means that most of these recordings are surfaceable just by a web search? I'd agree, if you have teams, use that, if you have a Google Edu option use that. The Zoom info about storing in AWS buckets is shocking - hadn't heard that before. Does that mean we can find the cabinet meeting recording?
GreyWhirly Posted April 6, 2020 Author Posted April 6, 2020 https://meet.jit.si/ host your own video chats, no need for 3rd parties This looks so easy to use! Brilliant! I would ask the person hosting the meeting to put a password on it ... but apart from that, could there be any security issues with it? How does it work? I just know I'm going to get asked what the difference is between this an Zoom ....
AJWhite1970 Posted April 6, 2020 Posted April 6, 2020 Had the dreaded email tonight from the chair of governors, zoom is dropping the 40 minute limit for schools, can we install ASAP. I said no, explained why and cc'd the HM. 5 mins later, email from HM, if you say no then no it is, we'll stay with Teams. 1
mavhc Posted April 6, 2020 Posted April 6, 2020 This looks so easy to use! Brilliant! I would ask the person hosting the meeting to put a password on it ... but apart from that, could there be any security issues with it? How does it work? I just know I'm going to get asked what the difference is between this an Zoom .... a) you can host it yourself, b) the source code is available so you can see if the hoster is doing something odd (obviously can't actually tell), otherwise they're all the same, webrtc means video conferencing is built into browsers, c) the source code is available so hopefully it's better written than closed source stuff. 1
keyboards Posted April 7, 2020 Posted April 7, 2020 Is there any more concrete information on Zoom or articles, as I would like to block it as we should all be using Google Meet.
hardtailstar Posted April 7, 2020 Posted April 7, 2020 Our governors do not have O365 accounts, as they use their personal email addresses (but login to a secure site to access governor documents). I'd set up your Governors with O365 accounts at the same time rather than use personal emails. They can then use Teams etc and you have more control over what they can do with those accounts.
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